Many African countries reacted quickly to the pandemic, but they have not avoided economic harm
“This virus is a deadly enemy we are dealing with and we cannot look at the numbers and be complacent,” said Nkengasong. “It’s going to change dramatically in the next week.” Still, African countries have been quick to take measures such as banning large gatherings and travel to their countries.
Ethiopian airlines, for example, the continent’s largest carrier, has been forced to cancel passenger flights to Bahrain, Egypt, Djibouti, Lebanon and Kenya. This has been credited by some to the continent’s experience dealing with the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people and forced governments to improve their surveillance, contact tracing and laboratory testing methods. Travel restrictions applied early may help to reduce the number of cases on the continent, but they have not prevented economic havoc. The U.N.’s Economic Commission for Africa last week cut this year’s GDP growth estimate for the continent from 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent and spoke of multibillion-dollar loses for countries such as Nigeria, which are dependent on healthy global oil prices. “Unfortunately it’s getting worse,” said Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the U.N.’s Economic Commission. “Those of us who are mathematicians understand what exponential means and know it when we see it,” she added, referring to the escalating nature of the epidemic. The number of coronavirus cases in Africa has increased 30 fold in just a week. Gianfranco Rotigliano, who coordinated the UNICEF response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said that a growing coronavirus epidemic would be difficult to hide. "There's no way that if you have a real epidemic that those cases can go undetected. If you have hundreds or thousands of cases, they will be detected,” he said. He also underlined the huge risk for Africa should the virus enter any of its massive slums or refugee camps. "I don't think the African health facilities are well equipped to deal with a big crisis. There is also a risk that it spreads if it enters big, densely populated, poor neighborhoods in places like Nairobi, Kinshasa or Lagos where people live together side by side. Self quarantine in these areas is almost impossible,” he said.Pro is our premium intelligence service for professionals. From financial services to trade, technology, cybersecurity and more, Pro delivers real time intelligence, deep insight and breaking scoops you need to keep one step ahead. Email
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